Gaming in the last generation

So i stumbled across this article about a guy that didn't really play games during the last generation and started to play again and came over these 4 big tropes that have become a big thing during the last gen.

There aren't any mascots for the consoles or games anymore that realy appeal to children like they used. Like Crash, Sonic, etc. The only big one we have gotten is Sackboy during the last gen that really stood out. They aren't memorable anymore, and i think that is sad in a way.

The games also do a lot of handholding compared to earlier. Now i don't see the issue with this with most games, but when you get hints all of the time and tutorials, tips, etc all the time, then that can become bothersome for some players such as myself.

Consoles that break down and games that don't work. He uses the 360 and Skyrim as examples. The 360 had a 33% fail rate when it was at the worst, but compared to earlier consoles, they worked just fine without any problems. I didn't have any real problems myself with consoles up until this recent generation of games where two of my 360 died for various reasons. He also brings up the point that Skyrim was unbearable to play. He couldn't load the game and play it. With recent games like Arkham, Battlefield and others that have game breaking bugs and need to be patched post-launch and there are still issues does give you an interesting view where gaming has gone.

Games will also play themselves. He brings up Ryse when it comes to executions where you can't fail, Bayonetta and the new 2D Super Mario Bros. Games that hold your hand so tight that you can't fail, even on the easiest difficulties

What do you think, has gaming changed that much?

Link

There are still plenty of challenging games released every day, but yeah, the man is right. This generation of games has been adamant about hand-holding. However, this could be attributed to one of two things. Either it's because:
A) Developers want to dumb down games to access a wider audience, or,
B) It's because games have become increasingly more complex in terms of mechanics.. the more complex the mechanics become, the more time games need to spend teaching you how to play.

Both of these reasons are valid, it really depends on the developer and the game in question.

true, but i still can't stand tutorials and constant tips on how to play the freaking game. Games have become more complex with time. But it's not a hidden fact there is a lot more handholding in almost all games

Gaming has changed considerably. I still love it, but the sixth gen was gold for me.

I think a lot of things has also become better, but a lot of crap comes with it aswell unfortunately. Like DLC, microtransactions, patches, unfinished games, handholding, etc

Last gen was an absolute train wreck to me.

1) DLC milkage, microtransactions, and pre-order bonuses got completely out of control.

2) AAA games which were a mild problem in 6th gen became an absolute shitfest in 7th. When a game costs $100 million, 3+ years to make, and you have to sell 5 million copies before you even see 1 cent of profit leaving you with no choice but to appeal to the LCD; something is wrong with your business stratagem and you're shitting on your fans.

3) Hand holding. Need I say more. I remember when games used to be hard in the 80's and 90's. Now holding your hand as if you were a small child with Downs syndrome has become the norm.

4) This one really pisses me off: releasing broken games. I'm not talking small bugs that will be fixed later. I'm talking ugly, game-breaking bugs. *cough* XCOM: Enemy Within *cough*

Sadly I see absolutely nothing changing for 8th gen except maybe (and that's a big maybe) them toning down AAA games a bit (slowly but surely more are starting to fail). DLC milkage, microtransactions, and pre-order bonuses I see continuing and probably expanding. In all honesty I can't blame them as long as abominations like Gamestop can still sell a game within a few months of release for $5 less than new.

to put it bluntly, gaming sucks ass nowadays. so much that i actually still play my ps2 twice as much as my 360, i even own 3 ps2 consoles just to ensure i'll always have something to play, cause at this point i've pretty much accepted that it is not going to get any better, it will only get worse from here, greedy game devs releasing HALF a game then charging more money for the rest "DLC as its called" stupid online multiplayer shoving the main stories to the side and dwarfing the sh!t out of it in the process, hell some games you can't even play offline ffs! wtf is that about!!?? and certain dlc's are the same way, i recently bought over 80 fvkin bucks worth of dlc for Street Fighter X Tekken "thats like 10 times double what the game originally cost!!!" only to find out that i can ONLY access it if i'm online! so anytime i wanna fire up a game of SFXTekken i have to go through the hassle of disconnecting my net from my pc, unplug and replug my net power cord so it can re-establish a connection and hook it to my console, why should i have to do that!!?? its complete and utter bs!!! but what can you do? *sigh* g-damnit i miss the ps2 days.

FVK todays gaming industry. -_-

The last decade or so has been horrendous for the most part, thanks to the over inflated development costs and shitty publishers turning away from niche games/genres.

Hmm, isent Cracked a joke site?

But nah i dont agree, gaming is as gaming as always been, there are some great games and some truly horrible games like Dark Souls.

Hah, I did that with my PSP umd system. I bought a second one just in case my current one fails down the road. I should have done that with the PS2!

I definitely hate the direction of where games are headed nowadays. A lot of it is anti-consumerist crap from big publishers and too much of a focus on DLC products and too little QA done to ensure a stable solid product. I logged into the origin website last night and I noticed all the $$$ gouging for Battlefield 3 products and its derivatives. To buy them all it'd probably cost about $120 or more. Same with battlefield 4 (might even be worse).

Of course you have dick head consumers who don't know the value of their parents dollar who feed into it

I can understand the issues with newer games being released. I personally could not stand Battlefield 3 because there were so many points of the game that would have been better if it wasn't for the simple fact that you were forced to endure the endless amounts of button mashing to reach your objective. The same thing goes for Ace Combat: Assault Horizon. This topic has been brought up before in numerous threads on this site and many others.

We have a society that has been broken up into three categories of gamers; (1) Story driven players who enjoy the game for its story, character development, etc., (2) Quick match players who want nothing else but to quickly sign in, play a couple of rounds for an hour and go about their business, (3) Smart phone players who only play games that are more arcade-styled and easily played as long as their battery life hold out.

Regardless of the fact that there are numerous amounts of genres, sub-category, etc. with each of these listed. It still holds the simple reality that players and the community is changing...drastically. I have even found myself going back to games I played as a kid and I am finding it difficult to play those games because the basic concept of gaming has changed...with the good and the bad. To direct the comment regarding Skyrim. I hate to hear that the player wasn't able to enjoy Skyrim because I personally believe it was one of the Top 10 games out there. To reference the patches that need to be downloaded "post-release" is a common problem now. With games being released every year or every other year, the developers are trying what they can to meet the demands. I'm afraid the gaming community won't exist in the next 10 years because everyone's demeanor towards video games is changing.

Depends, some of it is, but some of it isn't. This article was interesting though looking from someones perspective that didn't play in the last gen

Overall there have been some very negative trends in gaming over the past generation, but some companies like Nintendo and Platinum have kept the essence of this medium I love alive with games that focus on high quality gameplay, level design, and that aren't afraid to be completely brutal. It's these kinds of games I love the most.

Yeah, I'm having no problems at all at this point. I pick my games carefully, take my sweet time with them and have a huge backlog. I'm a happy gamer. It also seems this is more of a problem for people who primarily play shooters and rely on AAA titles, but that's just a guess.

You have to consider people who have just started playing games and need the learn all the basics. Developers and publishers don't want to scare those people away. If the mechanics have indeed become more complex with time, then new gamers have to learn more. They don't have the experience of previous generations. Gamers get older and they want games to age with them and their experience, which is not going to happen. One solution is of course the separated tutorial you can actually skip and sometimes I wonder why this has completely disappeared in especially shooters...

Why are you afraid? Why is this a bad development...?

100% with the handholding, so many games today hold your hand throughout the entire game and it really does just break down the experience, its very sad in a way. And hopefully one day we will see the return of Crash bandicoot.

I totally agree. Skippable tutorials should be possible

Modern RPG design...

The solution that most game companies are using is "DUMB THAT SHIT DOWN" to make it clear--you jump into the game, you follow your quest compass and you hit the awesome button. Ratio fixed, job done, time to call it a day.

That irrates the hell out of me. Also having freaking tutorials in those games, usually NEVER happend back in PS2 era for example

Story wise games have officially past movies in storytelling. However greed seep into the industry this gen. All the DLC, patches and micro transactions really did damage my gaming experience this gen. While Rockstar is awesome with fair awesome DLC and putting it on sale via traditional buying the disc many companies got greedy.

Still not all of them do this and really a lot of great classics came out like RDR, GTA V, ME, Portal etc..

Officially? Please provide official proof then. I don't know what kind of movies you are talking about here, but the problem with games is that the story has to compete with and fit the game mechanics. Game narratives can sometimes compete with movies, but to state they have officially surpassed movie narratives seems like a bit of a stretch.

Companies have unfortunately become really greedy

@loafofgame: I am not afraid of video games changing; that wasn't the basis of my comment. My fear is that with the amount of people currently wanting "quick-action style games" will soon completely take over the realm of video games with in-depth stories and character development. Maybe they will fade away to old stories we talk about on here and other gaming forums. We all see it, we all talk about it in one way or another. I understand most of us grew up with video games that made it hard for you to complete because the general mechanics of the game at the time didn't work very well so you suffered an untimely death because of a flaw and not because of your inexperience. I do understand that a lot of gaming companies need to look out for themselves. They need to base their revenue towards those who will possibly become a new customer. I personally enjoy video games... Always have and always will! I just hope with the new era of video games won't focus on those who want a quick fix...

Excuse me?

My apologies for partly misinterpreting your comment. I don't believe in this complete takeover. The quick fix audience might be a very profitable market and it might at some point lead to them dominating the industry, but I don't think that'll be the end of story and character driven games. There may be less of them coming out, but they won't go away. The success of some story driven games (TLOU, Infinite, even GTA V) points in that direction. With a broadening market, resources will also have to be spread. But I don't think the rise of a new market will lead to the disappearance of another (well, at least not in this context).

I'm mostly having a hard time believing this takeover thing, because my own experience doesn't confirm it. I like story and character driven games aswell (I never play MP games) and there are so many games I still have to play and there's so much coming out in the future that I can't figure how I'm going to able to play them all. I sometimes feel that the people who are sceptical about the future of gaming either have a very specific taste (and feel they're not being satisfied as much as they were in the past, which would make sense with a broadening market) or don't take their time with games. Or maybe they simply have a lot more time on their hands. Or maybe they don't realise that games might be more focused on securing new generations of people than growing alongside with the established gamers (which could explain all the complaints about handholding and games being dumbed down). The older and more experienced we become, the more we will notice the repetition and conventions of the industry.

In short, I don't share your fear. But I admit the reasons that I'm not afraid are very personal. Good to hear you're still enjoying videogames. I do aswell. :-)

for me, there will be no future console gaming, except, on my 360. I will be returning to pc's with my 360 controller.

why? the dumbing-down, simplicity and handholding of games combined with an emphasis on everything but great gameplay drives me instantly red. "cinematic presentation" and "streamlining" are words used to justify the release of unfinished games full of fluff with little meaningful substance.

I now look at console gaming as entering the point of diminished returns for me as a gamer. it is no longer worth my time and money. as well, I have enough games to buy for my 360 that will literally last me until the day I die.

for true gamers who recognize it, console gaming has now entered an age of irrelevancy that is driven by popular, money-making drivel.

Having been an avid gamer for 35+ years and played on most every console since the Atari 2600 I'd say that on the whole gaming has steadily and consistently improved with each generation. While some games last gen might have had a bit too much hand-holding overall I can't say that I had any real big problems with it. I currently find myself enjoying gaming now more then ever and given my limited time with this current gen I can't see this changing.

I think he was trying to make a joke, sites name is Cracked :)

No one has mentioned console makers downgrading or removing important features such as Sony removing the ability to use your PS3 as a computer.

Bt you have to admit a lot of things changed during the last generation

My main frustration towards the "takeover" is that many games are similar. You can even see it in movies. A lot of the characters are the same. A lot of the concepts are the same and everyone is literally trying to take one thing or another from each other. You said: "I sometimes feel that the people who are sceptical about the future of gaming either have a very specific taste (and feel they're not being satisfied as much as they were in the past, which would make sense with a broadening market) or don't take their time with games." I am skeptical, but I don't have a very specific type of game that I play, nor do I quickly rush into the game to complete it. In the end, you and I have different ideas towards how the gaming community will turn out in the next 10 years and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. We agree to disagree as some would say? I really do hope that in 10 years we are not all forced to play handheld games on our smart phones because the console wars would have ended with only one console becoming supreme.

"given my limited time"

These are the key words here. He doesn't mind the dumbing down/casualization/simplifying...(whatever you wanna call it) because he doesn't have (or want to make) the time to really dig into games that do offer the depth anyway.

But for ppl that do have the time and used to enjoy these types of games, the last decade or so hasn't been so good. And having to resort to public funding to get these games because the AAA publishers wouldn't go near anything that they couldn't peddle to your grandma or kid brother, is pretty f-n sad.

Well this wasn't suppose to be something big, i just thought it was a nice view on how things have changed

No what I meant was that since this current gen has just started I can't comment on how I'll enjoy it overall but so far it's good.

That guy does realize the fun of Bayonetta is trying to get higher rankings/better trophies, right? I'm guessing he is referring to how you have unlimited retries (or alot of retries anyways I do not remember if they were unlimited or not). And with NSMB, Doesn't using the white tanooki suit not really count the level as "completed", and thus using it will not help progress towards being able to do any extra challenges? I'm pretty sure it is something like that, as every modern Mario game has had something like this that appealed to more casual players, but also gave incentive for more hardcore players to avoid it. I am actually okay this kind of accessibility, and actually think it is pretty smart.

And TBH, handholding has never really been an issue for me, atleast from all that I have played. Fi from Skyward Sword is probably one of the more brought up examples of handholding, and honestly she never bothered me that much at all, because from what I remember when last playing the game, anytime she would pop up I would just quickly skim and mash A and be back to playing within seconds unfazed. That's not to say I liked FI or thought she was a good addition to the game or anything (I can agree she was pretty lame, gameplay-wise and story-wise), She just never really ruined the overall experience or grated me THAT much (which is how I feel about handholding in general, not really a good thing but not something that is that big of a deal to me). Perhaps I am just abnormally patient? Or perhaps there are worse cases of handholding I am forgetting or am not aware of.

As far as SS is concerned I remember having to still put some thought at certain puzzles or dungeons, and as far as combat goes SS was actually one of the more challenging 3D console Zelda games (and no, not because of the controls). I guess I bring this up because I do not necessarily think a handholding necessarily always equals an easier game. And bringing up Bayonetta again, that game's "handholding" did not really make trying to get gold, platinum or pure platinum trophies that much easier, which for me is what makes Bayonetta (and Wonderful 101 for that matter), so fun. And to bring up Mario again, I actually feel that modern Mario games have had more greater challenges than those of older Mario games (well, except for SMB2: the lost levels), yet modern mario games are probably more handholdy than earlier games.

As far as last generation and modern gaming is concerned, I do agree that business practices have gotten worse. That is not to say that devs were perfect little angels in previous gens, but stuff like micro-tnransactions, on-disc DLC, day one DLC, pay-to-play, etc. are just BS. As far as the games themselves are concerned, there were still plenty of great games released last generation. There were plenty of games that also were less than stellar released last gen too of course, and even some out-right bad ones, but what gen hasn't had a large percentage of bad or mediocre games?

I've been gaming 38 years and I completely agree. Its amazing how much game design has opened up. I'm always amused by the ability of some gamers to focus on games/trends thy dislike rather than focus on games/trends they like. I despise killstreaks,but I've never subjected myself to a multiplayer game with killstreaks, so its no skin off my back.

One trend I really love is user created content which allows non-programmers who are passionate about a genre and willing to invest a lot of time to make their own levels/games. Its not for everyone (I personally am a player, not a creator and only minority of creators are good) but the results are sometimes brilliant.